In a sandwich bag (or bowl) add your chicken, thinly sliced onions and the ingredients (except the oil). This is a bit messy but get your hand in the bag and make sure all the ingredients are mixed together. Close up your sandwich bag (better to place the bag in a bowl) and leave it in the fridge for 20mins – though the longer the better. Preheat your oven to 200C.

Empty all the contents of the bag in an oven dish and pour a little oil over the chicken making sure the onions are covered in oil (you really don’t need to use much). Put the chicken in the oven and after 15mins check that the onions aren’t burning. If they are starting to, stir them a little and leave to cook for a further 15mins.

I had a big salad with the chicken, but there was some left so I brought it to work for my lunch club. Claire had some left-over pasta and they went perfectly together.

For Sarah’s chicken, she lets it marinate for 24 hours (I think) and fries the thighs in oil. Either way is yummy.

Once I combined the first three ingredients, I pressed them into a pie crust pan.
I covered it and put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours with a couple of heavy jars on top to ensure it would be as compact as possible.

After two hours, I took it out and poured my melted caramel on top. You just want a thin layer because otherwise it will effect how your custard sets up.
Put the crust back into the refrigerator for another 1-2 hours. When you are ready to start making your custard, slice the ripe bananas on top of your caramel layer.

In a *double boiler, combine the milk and cream over medium heat and slowly add your 3 dry ingredients. Stir until thickened and bubbly.

Reduce heat and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and stir in 5 tablespoons (one tablespoon at a time) of the hot milk mixture into your beaten egg yolks.
While you are slowly adding your tablespoons of the milk mixture, be sure to whisk constantly.
This is the tricky part. If you do this part incorrectly, you will end up with scrambled eggs! Once you have added all 5 tablespoons, you can pour the egg mixture back into the double boiler with the remaining milk mixture.

Whisking constantly, bring to a gentle boil. This should take 5 minutes (set your timer) then cook it for an additional 2 minutes. If you do not set your timer and you don’t cook it long enough, your custard will not set and you will end up with pudding instead of pie.

Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla and butter.

Pour custard into a bowl and press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Then you pour the custard into your pie crust and enjoy!

I know this sounds long and laborious but it really isn’t. Each step only takes 10 minutes.
It’s perfect for those days when you are cleaning and doing laundry because you do one part and then go back to your chores. Then you do the next part and go back to your chores, etc.

*I don’t have a proper double boiler, I just use 2 saucepans. The smaller one goes on the bottom.You get the water to boil on the bottom pan and you put your ingedients in a slightly bigger saucepan, which sits non top of the smaller pan.
This ensures that you will not burn the milk. It is so easy to do.